Warlords of Draenor Mistweaver Monk Guide

The Mistweaver is a unique healing spec that can use traditional healing spells or , which converts damage dealt by certain abilities into smart healing, to heal allies. Mistweavers rely on both mana and Chi to power their spells; spending mana creates Chi, and spending Chi creates stacks of Mana Tea, which can be consumed during combat to refund mana.

Patch 6.0.2 Survival Guide

While a full list of the changes for Monks can be found in the Warlords of Draenor Monk Changes guide, here are the Mistweaver highlights that will affect your gameplay for the rest of Mists of Pandaria:

Healing spells are only accessible in , while -generating damage spells are only accessible in .

抚慰之雾 no longer generates Chi, but heals for a lot more than you're used to.

雷光聚神茶 no longer causes your next 活血术 to refresh the duration of your existing 复苏之雾 HoTs.

雷光聚神茶 has gained a soft target cap of 6 players. If it heals more than 6 injured players, the size of each heal will be reduced.

Most of the rest of the changes are minor, but the loss of Chi generation from 抚慰之雾 and the presence of a dedicated stance for the "Fistweaving" playstyle may take some getting used to. For most purposes, you'll be healing similarly to the way you heal now, but you'll have to rely on Surging Mist to generate your Chi. Many raid-geared Mistweavers already function this way, but for players in lower gear levels this may be a large change in playstyle. At level 90, your base mana regen and your Spirit-based mana regen have been buffed significantly to compensate for the loss of Spirit from many of your items and the increased mana cost of relying on spells like 真气贯通 or 神鹤引项踢 for Chi. As a result, you shouldn't feel constrained by mana, but be aware that mana will again be a concern by the time you reach level 100!

Spells

Mistweaver Monks have two Stances available to them, with each Stance granting access to different abilities. The enables traditional healing spells, and grants a 20% buff to all healing done. The converts damage to healing, allowing the Mistweaver to function as a damage-dealer, at the cost of reduced healing throughput. Some spells are duplicated across both Stances, but with slightly different functions.

Stance of the Wise Serpent

复苏之雾 - Places a HoT on the target, which will then spread to two other players, choosing the most injured target in range each time it spreads. Grants 1 Chi and benefits from .

真气贯通 - A fast, expensive, and powerful single-target heal. Generates 1 Chi. If you cast this while channeling 抚慰之雾, it will heal the Soothing Mist target instantly without breaking the channel.

氤氲之雾 - A powerful HoT effect, your main tank heal. Costs 3 Chi. If you cast this while channeling 抚慰之雾, it will heal the Soothing Mist target instantly without breaking the channel.

活血术 - Delivers a small heal to every player currently affected by 复苏之雾. Costs 2 Chi. This is your main AoE heal. Can heal targets that are out of line-of-sight or very far away. Heal size is reduced when healing more than six injured targets.

神鹤引项踢 - A channelled ability that heals up to six nearby allies. Generates 1 Chi if it heals at least 3 allies (yourself not included).

Self-buffs

青龙雕像 - Creates a statue which will duplicate your healing and 抚慰之雾 casts on nearby players. Keep this active and move it around with your raid on heavy movement fights.

Cooldowns

Life Cocoon

雷光聚神茶 - empowers your next 复苏之雾 cast, allowing the HoT to jump to 2 additional players, or doubles the healing of your next 真气贯通 cast. In Serpent Stance, use this with Renewing Mist in advance of heavy AoE damage so that your 活血术 casts will heal more players.

作茧缚命 - applies a very strong damage-absorption effect to the target, and increases HoT healing by 50% while it is active. Typically used on the tank.

还魂术 - Deals a large chunk of healing instantly to all players within 100 yards. Also dispels any Poison, Magic, or Disease debuff on affected players. Use this after a heavy-damage ability.

Core Rotations

These are basic guidelines for playing a Mistweaver Monk in each stance. As you gain more experience with the spec, you'll learn when to deviate from these general behaviors to recover from emergency situations or simply to match your healing output to the specific needs of each encounter.

Use 还魂术 when your raid leader calls for it or when the raid is dangerously low

Use 作茧缚命 when your raid leader calls for it or when the tank is in danger of dying

Use to deliver instant AoE healing when the raid is injured and you have many 精通：迷雾之风 spheres available, or just before your party moves away from its current location

During downtime, use to replenish your mana bar

Players can switch between Serpent and Crane stance in the same fight - Crane is great for conserving mana and generating stacks of during periods of light raid damage - but be aware that, though you retain your Chi when swapping from Serpent to Crane stance, you will lose all but one Chi when you swap from Crane back into Serpent stance.

Utility/Crowd-Control Spells

切喉手 - Interrupts a spell and locks the target out of that spell school. Melee range.

嚎镇八方 - Taunts a target, forcing it to attack you, and causes it to move 50% faster.

轮回之触 - Instantly kills a target, if its current health total is lower than your maximum health total; or deals your maximum health in damage to a boss under 10% health. This ability generates Eminence healing if you are in . Costs 3 Chi.

Talents

Level 15: Mobility - 迅如猛虎 is a great movement-speed enhancer with a short CD, and you can use it on other players (e.g. to help them kite). Take 动如脱兔 if you choose 真气突 for your Level 90 Talent, or for encounters with very frequent movement demands.

Level 30: Hybrid Damage/Healing - 真气波 is a good basic talent that is easy to use. 真气爆裂 is high throughput, but has a longer CD and a cast time, and is trickier because you have to be facing your intended targets; it is strong in large raid groups. 禅意波 is situationally useful.

Level 45: Chi Management - 力贯千钧 is a great option for sustained, steady Chi generation; pair with 移花接木 usage on CD for cheap Chi. 玄牛酒 gives you greater control over Chi generation, allowing more controlled burst healing, but has a 1-minute recharge time.

Level 60: Crowd Control - 扫堂腿 is the most popular choice now that 平心之环 has been reduced in power.

Level 75: Survival - 散魔功 has the widest applicability. Use it whenever you are magically debuffed for a free dispel, or when you are about to take heavy magic damage. 躯不坏 is a better choice for fights with heavy physical damage, like General Nazgrim's 战歌 ability.

Level 90: Throughput - 白虎下凡 grants an additional raid-healing CD and deals moderate damage. 真气突 is excellent for small-party content like Dungeons, or for highly mobile fights. 碧玉疾风 is the best choice for raiding, especially when players can stack up during damaging events, but is very expensive.

Breath of the SerpentLevel 100: AoE Healing - 迷雾之池 is a good default option. It places charges on your 复苏之雾 spell (and improves its healing). This allows you to spend all three charges at once, along with 雷光聚神茶, to generate up to 14 复苏之雾 HoTs in a short amount of time, then burst heal the raid with 活血术. This will be most beneficial in fights with downtime between dangerous abilities, such as Tectus in Highmaul. In , this talent improves the damage of 旭日东升踢 and grants it three charges; it becomes a better filler than 幻灭踢 when a few targets need strong healing. Note that the charges do not affect each other, so this talent is also strong if you are frequently swapping between Crane and Serpent stances.

is good for stacked fights with steady damage, and brings sorely-needed burst AoE healing to your rotation (where it replaces 幻灭踢 entirely). provides a moderate, frequent raid cooldown, but can be difficult to use due to its short range and cone-shaped healing effect.

Changes for Challenge Modes/Proving Grounds

For these types of content, I recommend using 真气突 or 白虎下凡 from the Level 90 talents. is my choice for the Level 100 talent, though none of the three shine in small groups. is a poor choice because most Chi will be spent on 氤氲之雾 for tank healing, and the control that 迷雾之池 gives you over 复苏之雾 is unnecessary when healing a party of five.

healing is very uncontrollable and may not work well for these types of content, but in the event that you do wish to complete these challenges in Crane stance, performs nicely.

Minor Glyphs

Mistweaver's Minor Glyphs are almost entirely cosmetic. is the only Minor Glyph with a function - allows you to fly at very slow speeds without using a mount, and allows you to gather from nodes whilst flying. Note: 禅意飞行 is not functional in Draenor.

Changes for Challenge Modes/Proving Grounds

The glyphs in the above-linked build will be suitable for Challenge Modes, although for some encounters (e.g. 戈洛克 in 血槌炉渣矿井), can be beneficial.

For Proving Grounds' Silver and Gold difficulty, consider . is also strong for Endless mode for the wave with two Aqualytes.

Gear and Stats

With the loss of reforging and the reduced availability of enchantments and gem sockets, gear customization is less complicated than ever.

Your stat priority is:

Intellect

Multistrike (due to )

Critical Strike

Spirit

Versatility

Haste

Mastery

Because is a very powerful mana refund mechanic, Mistweaver Monks can get away with lower Spirit than other healing specs. At the start of the expansion, however, additional Spirit will still be very valuable. While Mistweavers do get additional benefit from Haste due to , using more Haste often comes at the price of spending more mana, which in the Warlords of Draenor healing model may not be desirable. Use your own judgement when deciding how highly to value Haste; as your gear improves, or as you become more comfortable with switching between stances to save mana, you may find Haste a better option than Versatility.

Changes for Challenge Mode/Proving Grounds

Consider using Spirit items in every available slot (Neck, Cloak, Rings, Trinkets).

Enchanting/Gemming

Enchantments, by slot

Enchantments in Warlords of Draenor are limited to only the Ring, Neck, Cloak, and Weapon slots:

Weapon: 附魔武器 - 影月之印 is a strong choice early in the expansion, while later in the expansion you may wish to change to 附魔武器 - 霜狼之印 or 附魔武器 - 雷神之印, depending on your personal priorities.

Gems

In Warlords of Draenor, gem sockets will appear very rarely on gear, and should be highly prized. All gem slots are Prismatic, Warlords items no longer have socket bonuses, and gems are limited to granting secondary stats only (excluding Spirit), so you can simply choose your favorite secondary stat and place its gem in every socket you have. The two top options are: